Casters, Girls, and Bounty Heads Episode 4
by Chris Maldonado
Summary: CGBH episode 4


Episode 4: Enter hacker chick…

Oz and Ryoko stared at the instant noodle cups knowing full well that after they were gone that was it, the last of the food. They had $5 million from their last catch. And although it was a lot of cash, in terms of expenses, it was a short term comfort zone. With the money Oz could finally overhaul the either drive and have it replaced. This was no cheap task, because of the precision needed and the specialty of the parts the price tag ran nearly $3 million to get it done. But Oz found it to be worth the cost, the drive was getting weak and had it gone on longer without maintenance it would have decayed to a point in which the drive would consume nearly double the energy normally needed for a jump. And energy didn't just get pulled out of the air, that took fuel cells, and fuel cells cost money, lots of money. After the drive was given renewed life Oz sprung another half-million dollars to get new fuel cells that would last longer than the ones he usually bought, more expensive, but they would save him money in the long run. After that was all said and done another million went to upgrading and repairing Oz and Ryoko's personal crafts. With those things taken care of $4 ½ million came and went. With $500,000 left, there was still another expense, regular fuel. Rocket fuel was needed for the ships auxiliary engines as well as the reserve tanks that were used to fuel up the jets. And so it goes that $475,000 came and went. With the $25,000 left, Oz and Ryoko used it as food, ammunition, and fun money. Which didn't last but a few months, bringing them to this moment,

"We need more cash," Oz mumbled as he sucked up the noodles with his chopsticks. Needs spice he thought, so he added a fair portion of _tapatio _hot sauce to make it more appetizing.

"Yup," Ryoko said as she sucked up a large mouthful of noodles, finishing nearly half of the cup in one bite. Ryoko sipped the broth and then looked over at Oz, "but I think I've found our next bounty head." She grinned as she said this.

"Hmmm?" Oz looked over at her through the corner of his eye. He knew she had something good, she smiled that way when there was lots of money to be made. He finished swallowing the morsel of noodles in his mouth, " really?" he asked.

"Yeah," She replied, then finished the last of her noodles and gulped down the last of her broth before going on. "I was checking out the bulletin for any new postings and found one for a hacker named "Crash the Stampede."

"How much?" Oz was only marginally interested, until she answered his question.

"$10 million." She looked at Oz and waited for his reaction.

"Cha-ching." Oz gave a wide grin at the idea of having that much money on their hands. "We could definitely live off of that for awhile."

"Oh yeah," Ryoko wholeheartedly agreed. "I looked up his profile and found out he's wanted for extortion, apparently he's gained control of a bunch of company satellites that belong to some big company, problem is that these satellites are communications satellites and so he's cut off a lot of people from talking, so they want him badly. He's costing the company millions."

"No photo huh?" Oz looked at the screen staring at only the codename of this mystery hacker and the charges of his crime along with the reward money. "It says here that this guy is believed to be in Los Angeles somewhere." Oz thought about that. Los Angeles was a big place, well, big was an understatement. "So how we gonna find him?" Oz asked Ryoko in hopes that she had the answer, since he couldn't think of a solution.

"I have no idea." Ryoko put her head back and held it up with her arms, staring at the ceiling, hoping that just maybe she'd find the answers there.

"Well," Oz said in a resolute manner, "looks like we'll have to do it the old fashioned way." He fell back onto the floor and likewise stared at the ceiling, hoping that he could find an easier way to go about this.

Los Angeles, CA, Earth…

Oz and Ryoko stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. He had parked his motorcycle in the alley, since the decided it would be better to go on foot and search. Since they had no idea where he was they thought it best to just look around ask anyone if they knew anything.

"Guess our search won't be hard in a city this size right?" Ryoko walked along the sidewalk resting her hands behind her head and enjoying the sidewalk sights. She had accidentally punched out a performer earlier. He learned the hard way that some people don't appreciate it when you jump out of them disguised as a bush. In an attempt to show no hard feelings Ryoko threw him $20. This makes us even she told herself, and she felt a little pang of guilt ran threw her as she saw the man just lying there stunned.

"Well I say we check arcades and internet café's first before we go anywhere else." Oz decided that the best place to look for hackers was in places like those, that's where he would go if he were a hacker.

"Okay," Ryoko said as she bought a hot dog from a vender, "lets hurry up and find this guy so we can get out of this crap hole." Ryoko ripped the hot dog in half and gave one half to Oz, and then gulped down her half in one bite.

"Agreed," Oz gulped down his half in one bite also, when he finished swallowing he saw an arcade, and thought it would be a good place to start.

Four hours later…

"Dammit," Oz was walking with a slouch by this time and was incredibly hungry. Ryoko had long since resorted to flying a few feet off the ground.

"You can say that again, we've been searching for hours and nothing, this sucks!" Ryoko bobbed and weaved through a few people as she was complaining, then decided to rise above the crowd. She noticed Oz looking up at her.

"All the places that we've been to and the only thing that we've confirmed about our guy is that he _is_ a guy. And he _might _have blonde hair." Oz's frustration was clear, "And some people say he's a short guy, others say he's super tall." His voice trailed a bit. "Why don't you just teleport us around?" Oz was getting jealous of her powers, and wondering why she wasn't sharing the wealth.

Ryoko crossed her arms and an almost scolding manner and looked down at Oz, "I can't teleport us to places I've never been to you know that." She looked up just in time to dodge a light post.

"Well can't you at least carry me off my feet?"

"I'm not a taxi service," Ryoko sounded insulted by the idea of carrying Oz around in the air, "besides, you're a big boy, you can walk."

"Fine." Oz brushed his frustration away with a wave of his hand and then noticed that there was a huge arced building in front of him. The building looked to be two or three stories tall, and it had a huge neon sign that flashed "Eden's Arcade." "I think we may get some answers here." Oz looked at the huge sign, "if we don't find some answers here at least there might be some games to play."

"And me without any quarters." Ryoko set her feet on the ground and they both walked in.

In the arcade…

If the Garden of Eden did indeed have an arcade this was it. There were games everywhere, old, new, two player, virtual reality, everything. Bright lights flashed in all colors everywhere and _Daft Punk_ blared in the background. Oz looked up and saw the "One more time" music video playing on a huge 15 feet high, 20 feet wide screen near the ceiling. He also noticed video screens everywhere showing that same music video. He looked beneath the huge screen and noticed a DJ and a few other people working different equipment.

"So how we gonna find the guy in here?" Ryoko looked around at the all the games, taking the sights and enjoying the music.

"Just start asking some these gamer geeks questions, I'm sure someone's gotta know something."

"Okay" having established a strategy they both went their separate ways and started asking people. Ryoko noticed one person playing "House of the Dead." He had on a belt that had a few bits of technology, a techbrick, palm pilot, and some other things, most likely he was a hacker, and someone worth asking. She flew up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders, "wow you're pretty good!" She feigned excitement and noticed that it worked.

"Yeah well I guess I'm not bad." He replied.

"I don't play video games much, I'm a bounty hunter," she wrapped on arm around the guy and using her other hand she touched her finger on his dimple, " say you wouldn't happen to know a guy who goes by the name of 'Crash the Stampede' would you?" Ryoko had a bit of an ominous grin on her face that made the young man nervous.

"Uh nooo, b, but that guy might." He pointed over to a tall blond haired man playing Gundam Wing.

"Thanks sweetie," Ryoko winked at the guy then she turned and walked towards the blonde man.

"NO problem." The boy was still blushing when she walked off.

"Hey you know anybody who goes by the title 'Crash the Stampede?'" Ryoko leaned against the game monitor waiting for his answer.

"Sure I've heard of him, he's supposed to be one of the best hackers alive." He said in a matter-of-fact voice, as if everyone knew.

"Do you know where I can find this guy?" Ryoko's interest was peaked when she noticed that he seemed to know a lot.

"Nah, but I'll bet that chick on the DDR machine might." He pointed her out to Ryoko.

"Her?" Ryoko looked over and saw the girl; a girl who looked about 17 or 18 years old, and a red-head, Ryoko walked over to her and knew that there was something different about her, especially since she was playing the game on her hands with her feet in the air. Ryoko wasn't sure how to approach her, so she just tried to get her attention. "Hey kid?"

"Hmmm" Edward looked over at an upside down woman with silver hair and a skin-tight outfit.

"Ummm," Ryoko being unaware of how to go on; didn't. Then with a flip and a twirl the red-headed girl was in Ryoko's face.

"HIYA!" She had a wide smile and seemed all too eager to talk.

"Ummm," Ryoko wasn't sure how to react to the sudden "in-your-faceness" of the situation, "Who are you?" The red-head simply looked and smiled.

"Edward is Edward of course!" She said as if it was the most obvious thing for a person to know.

"Riiight, and _your_ name is?"

"Edward, Edward is Edward," Ed was confused by the question, Ryoko was confused by the answer.

"Okay," Ryoko moved on, "with that squared away do you know any hackers that go by 'Crash the Stampede?'"

"Edward sure does!" Ed announced triumphantly.

"You do!" Ryoko was excited by this, "could you tell me where he is?"

"Edward doesn't know where he is but knows how to find him."

"Well great!" Ryoko exclaimed, "So can you help us?"

"Sure, but Edward wants something in return."

"What?" Ryoko was discouraged by this, "I knew it was too good to be true," she mumbled.

"Ed wants to be a part of Team Cortez with Oz and Ryoko!" She shouted.

"Huh?" Ryoko wasn't expecting that, "Hey? How do you know about Oz and me?"

"Ed keeps track of all of the cool bounty hunters."

"Okay thanks, I guess." The idea of being admired was new to Ryoko.

"So can Ed join Team Cortez?" She looked at Ryoko waiting for a reply.

"I dunno…" this was definitely something that would take some deliberation.

Ed seemed to sense her hesitation and added further incentive, "I won't take any of the bounty for myself."

That was all it took for Ryoko. "Really!" she was excited by this idea, "Well of course you can sweetie the more the merrier!"

After the agreement…

"She wants what!" Oz was surprised to hear that she wanted that kind of deal, and even more surprised to hear that Ryoko had already agreed to it.

"She wants to join 'Team Cortez' and tag along with us, besides she doesn't want to take any of the bounty." Ryoko said in a rather nonchalant manner. Ryoko wrapped her arms around Oz and leaned in towards is ear, "Come on, it's not like we don't have the room, and if she can help us catch this guy she can probably be a big help later."

Oz pondered over this, it was true that she could be a big help, and…"She doesn't want any of the bounty?"

"That's right." She said.

Oz looked thoughtful, "Hmmm, alright fine," he conceded, "but only if we catch him."

Ryoko kissed him and then said, "I knew you'd see it my way." "Now lets make some cash."

Oz kissed Ryoko again and then thought about how long they could live off of $10 million dollars, "Oh yeah."

Time to get paid…

Oz sat on his motorcycle with his engine revved and waited. "Ready when you are Ed," Oz announced over the transceiver on his motorcycle.

"Okay." She responded. Ed had turned on her computer and had found Crash the Stampede after a little bit of surfing the net. With that she challenged Crash to a hackers duel, and in this case it was a matter of whose computer would crash first while trying to take control of a random computer network. And so it began and they dueled. It was up to Ed to trace Crash and find his exact location.

This left Oz to do nothing more but wait for the location transmission to show up on screen that was on his motorcycle. Then the screen lit up and Oz was off. At first it as narrowed down to a large three-square mile block, which left Oz to speed to that general area. Within a minute the screen flashed to narrow it down to a few square blocks. Oz knew she was getting close, the screen flashed again and it was narrowed to one block. Oz made a sharp turn to the right towards the city block. Oz was getting anxious, "Ed you almost finished?"

"Allllmosssst!" Ed declared, and even took a second to bring up her media player to listen to some New Found Glory. Ed looked up at Ryoko, "Ed likes." Then resumed what she was doing. She noticed that Crash almost had the upper hand, and so she saw it as a good idea to start using her feet too. Suddenly the screen flashed and Ed's happy face pulled up an announcement: TARGET LOCATED.

Oz looked at his monitor and saw the final location. He skidded to a stop in front of the building where the target was blinking. Oz quickly connected his techbrick to the monitor and downloaded the location onto it. "Ok Ed I need he blue prints for this place, upload it to my techbrick and give me an exact room."

"Roger," and then she typed away furiously to find the information. But not before she could send Crash a virus she made herself.

Crash's place…

Crash was enthralled in his duel when he saw a little smiley face show up in the cornerof his screen, then start jumping around. "Huh?" Crash looked at the little yellow face and it seemed to look back at him. Almost immediately after that the smiley-face consumed the entire screen and his computer shut down. "Hey!" Crash was stunned at this, "How the hell did they do that! My firewalls are the best around!" So he thought.

Oz ran up to the door that his Ed told him to go to, he pulled out a gun and kicked down the door. Then he saw the blond guy sitting at the computer, he looked like he was thinking about something, but what, Oz didn't really care.

Crash looked over at the man in a black and blue jacket and saw the 9mm gun pointing at him. "What the…!"

"Hey," Oz aimed the pistol at Crash's head, "Hands up okay pal?" Oz then cocked back the hammer to show he was very serious.

Crash sighed and threw up his hands, "Fine." He stood up to be cuffed.

Oz cuffed him and said, "Cha-ching." $10 million in the bank, he thought. And then he called the police…

You know how the rest goes…

To be continued…


End file.
